Month: October 2016

My week started off with a funeral. My Aunt died a couple of weeks ago, she was ill but she died at age 92 and lived a good life so that was a good thing. I went to the funeral and only knew a handful of people which kind of sucked because I have a really big family and I don’t know any of them. I need to do better about getting to know my family members outside of my immediate family.

Book Club was also this week and we had a really good turn out. We added two new members to our club and they came to their first meeting and it was seriously a good time. There was lots of food, a fantastic discussion on the book and so much laughter that I went home and was still laughing about things that were said and discussed. I seriously love my book club!

Also, my boss got married on Friday and that was pretty awesome because my boss rocks! My niece Meghan’s sophomore year of college basketball started on Wednesday with a Blue & White game (an introduction to this year’s team) and a family potluck that I attended. Gotta support the kids and it is always such fun to watch Meghan in action. She’s a fabulous basketball player! This weekend was for Homecoming and Brenna went to the Homecoming game with Kenna and Cheridan then on Saturday, they went to the dance with their dates. Here are some pictures of them!

Brenna and her date, Maxwell

Brenna and all of her cousins

Family makes the best friends. These guys have gone to school together since Kindergarten and they’re now Seniors in High School. Kenna goes to a different high school (for basketball), they’re still the best of friends and they’ve played basketball together since they were all in 4th grade. Go Mustangs!

Currently Reading

Would life be better without Ali? Probably. At least then people might think about Morgan. Ali’s always gotten everything ― she doesn’t even realize how much Morgan resents her.

Ali also doesn’t realize that when she shuts Morgan out entirely, she will unleash a chain of events that show just how dangerous the underside of love really is. As their lives spin toward something neither one of them can control, a terrifying crime reveals how those who know us best can destroy us…or save us.

I saw this book on Netgalley and was mighty curious about it so I picked it up. I didn’t get much reading done this weekend as Homecoming prep took most of my time but I started this one last night and so far, I’m enjoying it.

Book Boyfriend of the Week

“Then you’ve been dating the wrong guys.” He rubbed his jaw to hers. “Take a chance, Rory. Take the risk.”

Max is my favorite hero of the week. He fought the good fight of his attraction to Rory and lost. His story was super short but it was a cute one. Max and Rory are on their way home together, on the road and they don’t even like each other..or so they thought.

Max has some lasting resentment toward Rory from their shared history together and seeing him come to terms with the past, what could have been and what is now was great. I loved seeing him change from beginning to end of the book and he was just super sweet to his dog and just totally won me over full stop.

Like this:

This week’s Eye Candy Friday guy is one of my favorite heroes in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changelings series. He’s a great leader, a stubborn alpha but a big ol’ softie at his core. I loved how there was so many different sides to Hawke Snow but every single side made for one dynamic leader and compelling character.

Since the moment of her defection from the PsyNet and into the SnowDancer wolf pack, Sienna Lauren has had one weakness. Hawke. Alpha and dangerous, he compels her to madness.

Hawke is used to walking alone, having lost the woman who would’ve been his mate long ago. But Sienna fascinates the primal heart of him, even as he tells himself she is far too young to handle the wild fury of the wolf.

Then Sienna changes the rules-and suddenly, there is no more distance, only the most intimate of battles between two people who were never meant to meet. Yet as they strip away each other’s secrets in a storm of raw emotion, they must also ready themselves for a far more vicious fight…

A deadly enemy is out to destroy SnowDancer, striking at everything they hold dear, but it is Sienna’s darkest secret that may yet savage the pack that is her home-and the alpha who is its heartbeat.

Hawke and Sienna don’t get their story told until Book 10 of the Psy-Changeling series and there was a lot of lead up to it. There’s Sienna’s transition from living in the Psy world to living with Hawke’s Changeling pack and then there’s Hawke’s history and his mate that died and the feelings he was denying himself over a certain feisty Psy, the age difference between Hawke and Sienna was another thing that stood in their way of true happiness and I think that Nalini Singh handled every single obstacle that was thrown their way wonderfully.

Hawke Snow was the kind of leader that inspired loyalty in the pack. He was fiercely protective of his pack and his leadership was a thing of beauty. He was flexible when he needed to be but he ruled with an iron first when he needed to. There was a complexity to his character that I was completely drawn to and I loved the hell out him right from the very beginning.

On top of being drop dead gorgeous and the ruler of the SnowDancer land, he said things that would bring a grown woman to her knees.

“You have the power to tear me to pieces, to wound me so deep and true that I’ll never recover. What Rissa’s death did to the boy I was? You have the ability to do a thousand times worse to the man I’ve become.”

*swoony sigh*

“Pack is built on the bonds of family, of mating, of love. You come first. You always will.”

Some more *swoony sighs*

“You are in my every breath and every thought, intertwined so deep inside me that love´s not a strong enough word. You have my devotion, your name branded on my soul, my wolf yours to command. A hundred years? It will never be enough. I want eternity.”

Gah. I’m just a puddle of lust for this guy and if you haven’t read this series, or know who Hawke is…I beg you to fix that because you won’t regret it. Hawke Snow is all that is right in the world. So much goodness and here’s how I picture him in my head:

Go forth and read his book. But first read the first 9 books to really appreciate Hawke Snow. You know you want to…:)

The #1 New York Times bestselling “queen of paranormal romance”* is back with a sexy new series starring a Chicago crime family that hides a dark, mystical secret…

Whether it’s fast cars or fast women, Stefano Ferraro gets what he wants. When he’s not fodder for the paparazzi, he commands Ferraro family businesses—both legitimate and illegitimate.

While their criminal activity is simply a rumor yet to be proven, no one knows the real truth. The Ferraros are a family of shadow riders capable of manipulating light and dark, an ability Stefano thought ran in his family alone—until now…

With little left to her name, Francesca Cappello has come to Chicago in hopes of a new life. She wasn’t expecting to attract the attention of a man with primal hunger in his eyes, driven to claim her as his to protect and to please. And if he discovers her secret, it could ruin her…

I read this book for book club and it was recommended to me by one of my book besties so I went with it. I haven’t read very many Christine Feehan books, only one comes to mind and I can’t even remember the title of that book.

There was a lot of promise with this book. I thought the idea behind this mafia type family that rode shadows to right wrongs and protect the weak was great but when I finished the book, I was still confused about all things Shadow Rider. I get what their purpose was but how did Shadow Riders come about? Why were they necessary? Where did their magic or whatever it is you call shadow riding come about? How exactly are they traveling through these shadows and what are these tunnels that they talk about but never really explain? I closed the book, feeling the way that Stefano’s Mom wanted Francesca to feel when she was berating Stefano for sharing family secrets with someone outside of the family.

My frustrations with the book didn’t end there either. I could not get on board the Stefano train. His extreme controlling nature was a complete turnoff for me. I get that he wanted to protect Francesca from the villain of the book, I even get that he wanted to protect her because she was his future wife that would bear his children and nurture them but holy cow, he dictated what she wore, where she would live and work and he even dictated when she could climax during their lovemaking. Give me a freaking break! There’s alpha man and then alpha dickhead and Stefano veered into the alpha dickhead camp far too often for my likes.

Francesca was not a very memorable heroine for me. She was fine but not someone that I’m going to remember a few months from now. My gripes with her were how submissive she was to Stefano right from the jump. She didn’t know this guy but within the span of a week, she’s moved in with him, got engaged to him, thought he worked for organized crime and then felt bad that she asked if he was in organized crime (I totally didn’t get this. She asked him a question based on his behavior and treatment of her since they met, why the hell was she feeling bad about that?). I wanted her to be stronger than how I portrayed her to be from reading the book and I wanted her to stand up for herself more, put her foot down and have some kind of say in her life but nope. That wasn’t to be.

The romance felt like it happened at warped speed for me but that didn’t bother me as much as everything else that frustrated me. I enjoyed the dynamic between the Ferraro siblings and I’m curious about where the rest of the series goes but all of that didn’t really save the story for me. On the upside, it was a hit for most of the members of my book club. I was the lone member who was left unimpressed. *shrugs* Oh well.

Nora Kincaid has one goal for her second year of college: be invisible. Last year’s all-party-no-study strategy resulted in three failed classes and two criminal charges, and if she messes up again she’ll lose her scholarship. But there’s one problem with her plan for invisibility, and his name is Crosbie Lucas: infamous party king, general hellraiser…and her new roommate’s best friend.

Crosbie’s reckless reputation and well-known sexcapades aren’t part of Nora’s studious new strategy, but as she’s quickly learning, her new plan is also really boring. When Crosbie’s unexpected gestures of friendship pull her head out of her books long enough to see past his cocky veneer, she’s surprised to find a flawed and funny guy beneath it all. The muscles don’t hurt, either.

But as Nora starts to fall for Crosbie, the weight of one of last year’s bad decisions grows even heavier. Because three failing grades and two misdemeanors are nothing compared to the one big secret she’s hiding…

Nora spent her freshman year in college, partying too hard and going buck wild so when she almost gets expelled for her party girl shenanigans, she swore that her sophomore year was going to be different. She was going to cut ties with her party girl image and friends and she was going to buckle down and get to work. She was going to get good grades, she was going to work hard and she was going to keep her head down. When she moves in with the gorgeous and big man on campus, Kellan, she thought things would be okay because he was looking for a roommate who wasn’t about partying and drama. He wanted a low-key roommate that could help keep him focused on his studies as well so really, they were the perfect solution to each other’s roommate problem.

Nora is serious about no distractions and no temptations so when Kellan’s best friend Crosbie Lucas starts coming around a lot with his distracting presence and his tempting bodies, Nora knows that she’s in trouble. She’s in trouble because Crosbie is a part of the scene that she’s trying to stay away from. He represents everything that went wrong with her freshman year but with each passing day, she sees different parts to his personality and she can’t help but fall a bit for him.

Crosbie loves the college life. He’s got a great best friend and he doesn’t have any trouble getting ladies even with being in the shadow of his campus celebrity best friend. He’s never been jealous of the spotlight that Kellan inhabits until he meets Nora. Nora is Kellan’s new roommate and for the first ever, Crosbie wants the girl. He wants a girl that he thinks is interested in Kellan and being around Nora is torture for him because he can’t help but think MINE every time he’s around her and the insecurities that pop up wherever she is, is new to him.

I loved watching these two circle each other. Their every interaction was filled with so much goodness that I grinned and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Even after reading it a second time, it was like reading it for the first. The romance between Crosbie and Nora was front and center and I adored it to pieces. I loved seeing them come into their own and then grow in their love for each other. There’s an incident involving Nora and Kellan that I thought was just flat out dumb but I chalked it up to them being in college and young enough to get away with dumb stuff.

Overall, this book was fun and the romance was sweet and I really enjoyed it. You should read it so you can enjoy it too. 🙂

About Me

My name is Rowena and I live in L.A. and am still waiting for my Prince Charming to come and find me. My best friend keeps singing, "Someday our Prince will come..." so Prince Charming, if you're looking for me, pass Crenshaw Blvd, don't turn left!

Welcome.

This is my personal blog so you'll find a lot of personal stories, things that made me laugh, cry and everything else in between. I'll talk books, review movies and talk about the TV shows that I'm watching.

Disclaimer

I'm offered (and accept) review copies of books from authors, publishers, publicists and other third party distributors. For arguments sake, you may assume all books reviewed on this site were sent for review by one of the above mentioned (though the truth is probably somewhere closer to 70%).

That I accept books from outside parties has no bearing on the outcome of the reviews. I am, and always will be, completely honest in my opinions - whether positive or negative.

The movies that are reviewed on this blog are movies that I've paid to see in theaters, rented myself or streamed on Netflix with a subscription I pay for.